Letters | Equal justice for all?

YOUR RECENT cover story on how they found the killer of Officer Gary Skerski unnerved me.

While I most certainly sympathize with the family of Officer Skerski and respect the camaraderie that police units have, I am slightly bothered that the same enthusiasm and wherewithal to find Skerski's murderer is not the same that we see when there is a murder of an "everyday" person.

I twice read the article, and the same few paragraphs boggled my mind. "Patrol cars and SWAT teams sped from the bar in opposite directions, chasing down anyone who fit any vague description of the shooter. Two men were arrested for carrying guns. Cops also found a gun-wielding man clad in camouflage in the middle of Roosevelt Boulevard . . . The manhunt was just beginning. Detectives worked through the night, combing Northwood for clues."

The passion that brought all of law enforcement together to search for the person who took down one of their own is the same passion that is lacking when another child, teenager, mother, father or grandmother is gunned down.

Where's SWAT then? Where are the detectives who combed for clues for Skerski? Where are the cars that sped from block to block in search of anyone who even vaguely fit a description or looked suspicious?

My father retired as a sherriff's officer for Somerset County, and I was scared every time he went to work. But I also know that my father had the same passion for every case. He didn't treat one as more worthy than another just because one involved a brother in blue.

My condolences to the Skerski family. My condolences to every family in Philadelphia and worldwide who have lost loved ones on the streets of violence.

I only pray that law enforcement is compelled to reverse the cycle and have the same amount of drive to find these killers of our own children just as much as the killers of their own men in blue.

Kelly M. Johnson

Philadelphia